[hartmm]

Hello,

I am trying to build a dedicated Kodi 17 box running openelec or LibreELEC. My only main requirement is that its fast enough and can support a 4k resolution output to my TV, with at least one USB 3.0 to read my external hard drive content.

Most of my content will be on a 3.0 usb external hard drive and connected to the dedicated kodi box. I plan to transfer content via my network to the external harddrive to have a direct connect. My streaming is not always consistent.

I do not plan to run android TV because my Sony 930D already has it. I am running a raspberry pi 3 and am pretty happy with it but its doesnt have the 4k output, and sometimes the raspberry can be a little sluggish.

I have most recently been looking at a chromebox... but cant seem to understand which one will do 4k output. Or if I should use a direct boot Mini-PC to Kodi.

Thanks! I have spend many hours reading but can not seem to get a direct answer.

[wrxtasy]

Have you not read the START HERE sticky thread.... ?

I'm not going to repeat what has already been written......look how many times 4K is written in the following paragraphs....

Q. Best 1080p/4K Bang for the Buck - Kodi only, HD Audio device ?
(All running LibreELEC Kodi Krypton RC, easiest to hardest to setup, Wireless remote purchase recommended)

• ODROID C2 / WeTek Hub
  
• MINIX U1
  
• Various cheap AMLogic S905(X) devices.

Q. Android Kodi boxes with up to 4K online streaming Apps, Netflix, Amazon (Prime) Instant Video etc & some light gaming:
NOTE: The Shield has no Dolby Audio Licence, there are limitations when streaming to legacy audio equiptment, see HERE for details.

• nVIDIA Shield (4K HDR Amazon video as well)
  
• Amazon Fire TV2
  
• Xiaomi Mi Box (Amazon Video App does not work)

Compare Android Streaming Media Players HERE

Q. I need proper 1080p/4K Amazon (Prime) Video streaming, with a DIY sideload of the Kodi App for Amazon Hardware ?

• Amazon devices - Amazon Stick - Fire TV1 + Fire TV2 (4K)
  
• nVIDIA Shield - (HDR Amazon Video)

Q. What about devices for 4K HEVC (H265) video playback over HDMI 2.0 to my non HDR capable 4K TV ?

• All AMLogic S905 devices including WeTek's, MINIX U1, ODROID C2 + others
  
• Xiaomi Mi Box
  
• nVIDIA Shield
  
• Amazon FireTV2 running MrMC or SPMC (Kodi versions) or Kodi Krypton beta6
  
• HiMedia Q5/Q10 Pro
  
• Zidoo X9S (New device so possible issues.)
  
• Intel Apollo Lake / Skylake

LibreELEC Kodi on AML S905's is plenty fast enough. Especially when running from eMMC flash. You don't even need to spend a fortune.
Plus LibreELEC Kodi has an inbuilt SMB server, for easy file transfers across a Home Network. To and from external Hard Drives.

[leo5111]

wrxtasy, he says he wants usb 3.0 the c2 doesnt have a usb 3.0 port or does it? im wondering because you mentioned that

[wrxtasy]

Answer then would be...

Intel then - Apollo Lake / Kaby Lake or Skylake microarchitecture. HDMI 2.0 is needed & Hardware that can decode the essential 4K 10bit HEVC.

USB 3.0 really is only needed if writing speed to the external connected Hard drives is an essential requirement. USB2 can certainly stream 4K video into LibreELEC Kodi easily.

[hartmm]

Obviously because It said START HERE, I did not start there . Thanks, I decided to go with the MINIX U1. USB 3.0 is not that big of a deal if it has everything else. Yes agreed, write speed is what I was looking for but not essential.

thanks Wrxtasy!

[leo5111]

if you are using it just for Xbmc/Kodi 4k get the Odroid C2 far better supported then the MINIX

[hartmm]

hello,

I got my Neo U1. I tried to run Kodi using Minix's build which is preloaded on the device. I was happy to see it would load the 4k resolution but generally the playback and skipping between movies was not great at all. Pretty surprised it was not more responsive. I then tried to install kodi 17 from the Play Store. This was pretty much a playback and loading disaster, I think I managed to crash 17 on the U1. All I typically try to do is load 4k content and then skip to another movie at 4k.

I have now managed to load LibreELEC on an SD to boot on the U1. At first glance its pretty incredible. Able to better connect to my network without having to use the Android map disk which I found on one of the forums. Not knowing that the Minix does not easily allow access to its files. I did not realize when purchasing the U1 that the Minix Neo U1 is not 100% supported with LibreELEC, even tho I have it loaded and it runs awesome for movie playback. Some of the other features are missing for the U1.

Thats been my experience with the Minix Neo U1.. not bad but not awesome in trying to get it to be a dedicated kodi device and I was hoping to run Kodi 17 smoothly but not sure that is going to happen.

I guess my question is did I miss something? Is there another or better way that the Neo U1 can be a dedicated kodi device?
thanks!

[wrxtasy]

If you want any 4K media player then it needs to do Resolution Switching. By this I mean Auto switching from within Kodi itself from 1080p to 2160p seamlessly - without bugs.

You want your 4K TV, with its superior 4K Hardware upscaling capabilities to upscale 480/720/1080p content to 2160p & have the device Resolution switch when playing 2160p content to output proper 4K video without re-scaling.

No Android device I know of can do this currently. Not even the nVIDIA Shield. Even if you manually switch resolutions in Android Settings on the Shield from 1080p to 2160p you end up with RGB color output and have to reboot to get back to normal YCbCr color.

So concluding @hartmm Its a good thing you can actually run LibreELEC Kodi on the U1 because you can actually Resolution switch seamlessly, and get your TV to upscale properly with better video quality than Android on the U1. Plus you will be running a better version of Kodi with LibreELEC compared to Android Kodi.

[hartmm]

Wow, I think I understand about the upscaling and resolution switching. I have just become acquainted with 4k and kodi over the past week of obsessing.

I am happy with it and will wait for Kszaq's build for LibreElec S905 is get increasingly more developed. Might also switch it to the internal memory in the U1 and just remove Android. Still pretty surprised that Kodi doesn't run great on Android or I should say as smoothly as it does on LibreElec and OpenElec..

Also surprised that the U1 accesses my network better and allows for a larger external HHD then the Minix Software when running LibreElec.

In case anyone is trying to do the same thing I am Running the
kszaq 's Build on LibreElec Forum

[noggin]

You want your 4K TV, with its superior 4K Hardware upscaling capabilities to upscale 480/720/1080p content to 2160p & have the device Resolution switch when playing 2160p content to output proper 4K video without re-scaling.

That is the ideal world. Annoyingly (and I totally understand why) - Kodi doesn't do that in most use cases...

What it does instead is scale 480i/p, 576i/p and 720p content to 1080p - for the TV to then upscale to 2160p - OR output 2160p at 2160p. This means <1080p content has been scaled twice - once to 1080p in Kodi and a second time to 2160p in your TV. In particular this can make 720p stuff look a little worse than it should IME. (Switching the Kodi resolution manually to 720p, and letting the TV upscale from 720p to 2160p looks cleaner for example)

But I know native resolution output isn't going to happen - as it only makes sense for 'proper' resolution content - and there are lots of sources that aren't 'proper'...

[wrxtasy]

I am happy with it and will wait for Kszaq's build for LibreElec S905 is get increasingly more developed. Might also switch it to the internal memory in the U1 and just remove Android.

There is a LOT more work that goes into the AMLogic Linux Kernel and AMLogic Kodi itself for LE on S905's than what you see with generic Android S905 Boxes running Android Kodi.

LE is purposely built to run Kodi at speed with minimal overheads. Network connectivity is far better as well. Once you have LE Kodi running from faster eMMC Internal memory you have one very capable little Kodi device that will virtually play anything you throw at it.

Even better if a fast LE Box is teamed up with a responsive Wireless remote control.

I use a MINIX A2 Lite remote with LE on the S905 ODROID C2.

LibreELEC 8.0 Kodi Krypton Final will be out very soon too.

BTW: 4K content on Android Kodi will only play half decently if you hard select a 2160p Resolution in Android Settings > Display > Screen Resolution first.
You should download SPMC/Kodi from the Playstore and try that as well.

[clarkss12]

Wrxtasy, actually, when using Kodi or LibreELEC on my devices, I prefer the stock remote. I have numerous of these ** in your words, cheap Chinese boxes** and numerous different remote controls, including a couple of Logitech universal remotes, but I find that most, if not all of them, work great with the stock remote.

At any one time, I have at least 8 different devices (mostly these "cheap Chinese") boxes connected to my system. But some of my remotes actually control some of the other device. In other words, when using one remote, it controls other devices, and that causes problems. I just replaced one of my 4 port HDMI switches with a new one that supports 4K, but now some of my stock remotes also control that switch (which causes all kinds of problems). So, now I have to keep a towel covering my 4k switch IR port, when it is not being used to switch to different devices.

[wrxtasy]

My test is lay on couch - point remote wherever in the Living Room without thinking - and I want instant Android or Kodi GUI control.

Next project is to try and get some of those cheap, simple Bluetooth - Mi Box remote controls working with LibreELEC.

I noticed just today support had been added for a Bluetooth Amazon remote to LE.